SHI BLOGS TOO

I Think I Scored At Water Skiing

This is a challenge I wrote today for The Review Fools.



I Think I Scored At Water Skiing


My first and last attempt at water skiing occured back in the early nineteen sixties. I was sixteen years old at the time and in love with a boy named Tom, who was seventeen. We were "going steady." That was a term that everyone used back then, when two young people became a couple. I wore Tom's class ring as proof of our union.

It was a sizzling hot summer day when we hit the beach at Higgins Lake, one of Michigan's many recreational lakes. Tom had somehow managed to talk his parents into letting us use the big Cruise Craft to go water skiing for the day. His friend Jerry came along to help with the boat. Tom and Jerry were both experienced water skiers. Their families had spent many summers together at the lake. They both knew how to man the boat and knew where the best place on the lake was to put the boat in the water.

I was familar with the big popular lake, but not the water skis. The boys took turns at one navigating the boat while the other skied behind it. Repeatedly, powering the boat up as it headed out away from the shore, then easing up on the speed and bringing boat and skier back into the shallow water. After about thirty minutes of watching them skim, circle, and fly across the top of the boats rippling waves, they decided it was my turn.

I was nervous but ready. I had been sitting in the boat long enough working on my tan. Secretly hoping that Tom would notice my blossoming shape in my new baby blue strapless swimsuit.

I mounted the skis and stood up as instructed. Soon, I was flying on the top of the deep blue water just as they had done before me! I felt a rush of excitement. My legs ached some, but I kept my balance on the skis. I had to show them that I could do this too.

Then my turn was up. The boat was slowing down. Still standing I could see the shoreline closing in on us. Then just as the motor chugged to a stop I entered the water almost up to my neck. Faltering forward I kept my footing while trying to rise out of the water surrounding me.

Then it happened. When I rose up out of the water my bathing suit slipped clear down to my waist!

I was horrified.

The boys were gawking at me.

It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.